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"Don’t hate elato infor for Ka a little overshadowed by Angela’s good looks as well, especially after Jared’s reaction--or conspicuous lack thereof--to her dress

"I’ll just be a second," said Holly, gesturing toward the door to the extension that led to the bathroo ladies owe ela Angela atching Holly h silver heels, suy despite his clear wish to detain her Angela’s look at Holly was fond, but the gaze she swept toward Holly’s suitor and then the rest of the bar was scathing

"Why are boys such a nuisance?" Angela wanted to know, after a long pause in which she apparently brooded over this unanswerable question

"It’s hard to say," Kami answered "I put it down to irresistible charh the heap of suitors atdifficult" Sheover suitors that were actually cardboard coasters

Angela raised a perfect eyebrow "Sparkling wit?"

"Don’t feel bad, Angela," Ka Repartee I can’t count how many times men have admired my well-turned phrases The shallow jerks"

"Holly’s been a while; I’ froabout witticisood"

Kami waved her off and took another sip of her drink She looked around, back at Nicola, as talking to a guy, and then at her own reflection over the bar, in the darkened glass behind the rows of bottles Her gaze was drea her own eyes That hat unsettled people about her and Jared, that their eyes were so often looking at so tihtly from the barstool, because she was a lot taller froela

Then she heard the screah the cheerful noise of the bar, dead serious over all the laughter Kah the croard the extension door She was halfway there, using her elbows like paddles in an uncooperative sea, when the door burst open Holly stood on the threshold, hairone of her high heels like a sword

Angela was there before Ka Holly Her arainst Angela’s red silk shoulder

Kami reached the Her voice was clear andback, along the extension to the bathroohts went out I put uidebrick, and then--I touched so warrabbed at rip on me And they ainst her neck "My throat," she whispered "I felt the edge Whoever it was had a knife"

The whole pub went still around them, as if the word "knife" was a stone thrown in the center of a lake, changing the whole surface of the water, spreading a ring of silence

"What did you do?" Angela asked Ka to Jared in her mind, to his instant support and concern

"I screamed, ‘Don’t hurt me,’ and I tried toall--like a scared girl in a horrorover the words "Maybe it was stupid, but it was the only thing I could think of And when I was crouching down, I got ht whoever it was in the face I heard a shout like I did They were taller than me, I could tell that much, but I don’t know if it was a ela stroked Holly’s hair, even though her hands were still treot theela "Next time"

Kami rested a hand on Holly’s back and said, "I think you were really smart" She turned to look at the others with an authoritative air, because pretending to be in control made her feel more in control and less scared and useless "Has anyone seen any strangers?" she asked, thinking of Henry Thornton fro open, and Kami turned with the rest of the pub’s clientele to see the two Lynburn boys standing fraht

The crowd of people in the bar stood watching Jared, silently accusing

Your ti, Kami told him By which I mean, I a in a ring of space in a throng of people, like a tiny drill sergeant Relief broke from him and toward her like a wave to shore She was safe Then Rusty pushed past hi on to each other This was a bad sign, he realized, because Angela was as nurturing as a barracuda Jared looked to Ka Jared actually hate hied her Kauely fairl stepped out of the crowd and up to the door where Jared stood, her jewelry chi like tiny bells

"Lynburn," she said, as if Jared and Ash were a unit, as if she was calling on a tote to a person

"Yes?" Ash said softly, at Jared’s elbow

Jared gathered froirl was called Nicola He saw Kami detach herself from Rusty and head across the floor to him

"The people in this town are ht at Jared Her throatin his eyes she was afraid of, Jared thought She looked back at Ash "Isn’t that the bargain? Wasn’t that the promise?"

"What do you mean?" asked Ka a journalist and partly about insinuating herself between Jared and Nicola As if she could glare people into not being afraid of hi look and shook her head, her red ponytail fluttering in the wind blowing in from the open doors She retreated into the embrace of her friends, elcomed her back as if she had just co and accusing